Migrants flown home to escape Libya battle
THE International Organisation for Migration said yesterday that it had flown 160 migrants home to three African countries from the Libyan capital amid heavy fighting on the city’s outskirts.
The IOM said it had organised a charter flight late on Thursday from Libya to Mali and onward to Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, with 16 children and 20 women among those flown out.
“We continue to support a safe and dignified return for migrants to their home countries,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya chief of mission, in a statement.
Libya, long a major transit country for migrants desperate to reach Europe via the Mediterranean, has been thrown into renewed chaos in recent weeks.
Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army, has launched an offensive to take Tripoli from the Unbacked Government of National Accord, intensifying the country’s crisis since the Nato-backed overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Thousands have fled heavy fighting on the outskirts of the capital that has left dozens dead and prompted global alarm.
International aid groups have warned of the danger to migrants living in the city or being held in detention centres. The UN’S special envoy for Libya said on Monday the organisation had heard reports of migrants being given military uniforms and forced to fight.
The IOM said that despite the fighting it was pushing on with its voluntary humanitarian return assistance to migrants stranded in Libya and wishing to return home.
More than 16,000 migrants were repatriated from Libya in 2018 under the programme, and another 3,175 migrants returned so far this year, it said.